Al - Moderator

I do dye my hair regularly and I also use Just For Men hair dye. There's no issue using it on transplanted hair, but I'd wait a couple of months before dying it to let the area heal.

Why would anyone even bother looking into a place with up to a 4 year waiting time? The original consultation would be totally useless at that point. I went from a thinning crown and looking like I had a full frontal half by parting my hair on the side to NW 6 in four years. Doesn't make any sense to have a plan for your HT and then not do it until 4 years later. What happens when you plan two sessions (first one for the front and second for the crown)? Do you have to wait 4 years to get the second procedure? Ridiculous.

This is Dr specific. Most Drs will require that the recipient area be shaved as they claim it is easier to place new grafts between existing hair when lengthy hair is not present. Other Drs will work around the existing hair without issue if you request it. Generally I believe the ones who will transplant between long hair are Drs who have been in the field for many years or ones who have trained under a Dr who has been in the field for many years because in the past it was much more common to not shave the recipient area. You need to ask your Dr if you have the option to not shave. Alternatively you can try asking if he is willing to just work with your hair very short rather than shaved as this can at least shorten the amount of time for it to grow into the length you prefer. Ultimately though, it is not a good idea to try to convince the Dr to perform the procedure in a way that he is not comfortable with or does not have much/any experience with as it may affect the end results which is the most important thing in the long run.

I have to ask... Why are you opting for FUE this time around? You seem like an ideal candidate for FUT due to the following: 1. Already had FUT done previously. 2. You don't want or even like a short haircut. 3. You say you had great results from the first FUT. 4. You don't want to shave your head for the procedure. This post is not to start another debate about FUT vs FUE, however I do believe some people are better suited for either one or the other based on their hair style preferences and past experience.

I've had more work done than anyone as far as how many sessions and I don't have any redness on my scalp.

I originally gave my opinion to hold off due to possibly making the hairline worse if the Dr tried to fix it while you had swelling, but it looks like it may have been a good decision for you to get it done. Good luck with the growing!

It looks like you are coming along pretty well. There are two reasons why I would wait the full 12 months before doing another session. 1. You want to see how much more growth and thickening you get in the area just behind the hairline, so you can get a better sense of how much, if any, grafts you ant to use to strengthen that area up. 2. I'm a little concerned about your donor area. I'd want to wait a few more months to let the area fully heal and let any shock loss you may have had to grow back in. You can go to the follow up consultation now to let the Dr. see how you're coming along, discuss with him a general idea of what you want to accomplish next, and even set up the appointment for the next session to be done around the 12 month mark. Then when you actually go for the 2nd HT you and the Dr. can get more into the specifics of how many grafts he thinks he can get and where to place them.

It looks like temporary shock loss. That can happen when you have some hair in the area before the transplant. Just wait a few months for it all to start growing in.

I was wondering about that and wasn't sure if it was some issue on my end or not. Thanks.

The cracks/pathways are normal. Don't worry about it.

We are not as old as you to remember back that far, Vox! ?

Are you going for a permanent mohawk look? Or something like a shaved fade? Interesting idea, but you could be left with lots of dot scars from the FUE.

Do you take Zolpidem regularly? Headaches and facial swelling are some of the possible side effects of Zolpidem.

Hank9, If I were you I would try going back on the real stuff for 6 months just to see if it is an issue with the generic or not.

The only thing you can really do is try to comb your hair in a way that covers most of it without trying to comb it too ridiculously that it's obvious that you're doing that. You may also then be able to use some hair fibers or powder to add a bit of density if you have enough hair to do that with. Hopefully the redness will fade a lot in the next two weeks, so it won't be so bad.

I can tell you that my own crappy looking hair looks several times more crappy under the fluorescent lights in my office at work. I hate taking pictures there!

But he is specifically picking patient photos who don't look much different from 6 months to 12 months in order to fit what he is saying. You can easily do the same kind of video pointing out how there is a big difference between 6 months and 12 months by showing different patient photos. Everyone grows differently.

This is one of the problems with FUE. The donor area that is used is much larger than with FUT and thus the potential for losing transplanted grafts after some years is higher with FUE. This is not necessarily uncommon or bad (other than it looks like they went rather high in your case). The Dr. may have been getting better grafts from that area or having an easier time getting the grafts out possibly due to the angle of your hair in that area or the position he had to position himself in as well as other things. In any case, if he is getting good grafts from one area he may decide to continue in the area and adjacent areas as long as he is having an easy time getting good quality grafts. He may have also felt that your loss pattern was tending to one side, so if he had to go high in order to get enough grafts then he would try to stay towards the side he felt was a safer donor area for the long term.

I think you run the risk of making it look worse. If you have some swelling right now that could be making it more pronounced than it really is. If you add some grafts on the one side to even it out, then what happens when the swelling goes down in a few days? You could end up with it not looking right and even being lower than the other side. I say leave it alone for now and wait for it to grow and reassess. You can always get more later.

Yes. This has been done by others and it seems to work. The general answer is yes it's doable. For your particular situation and whether it will work for you depends on a lot of factors including how large is the area that needs to be covered, how much body hair and head donor hair do you have left to use, how much hair coverage do you currently have, etc. Adding some thickening illusion with SMP is the only time I think SMP is worth doing. I personally don't like SMP on a bald scalp because while photos can look great, I just don't believe it will look good up close in most situations.

In the first photo the womans hair is combed upwards to show the thinning area. In the after photo the angle is slightly downwards so the thin area isn't straight on, so it won't look as big, plus her hair is now lighter, plus the hair is now combed over the thin area to make it look covered, so you can't actually tell if there's more hair in that area or not.

The article is from 2011. It's now 2018 and no new news on it. That pretty much means it didn't work.

If you are going to do SMP ( I personally wouldn't) I think you should always go with temporary SMP first to see if it is something you can live with long term.

I don't think 1500 will be enough. I think you can get away with 2000 if you're not lowering your hairline any and just filling it in and not worrying about the crown for now. If you want to lower it slightly then I think you are looking at the 3000 range. Something to think about: If you figure Erkan will put 500 grafts into the crown to reinforce it a little (just a guess), then Erkan and HDC estimates are basically the same as far as how much you need in the front.

It takes several sessions to get most of the hair because you have to space the extractions out, so they don't all overlap each other and create one huge scar. There needs to be some space between the punch holes for the skin to heal. On the second session you go in between where the first session was done and extract a some of the remaining grafts. It will take several sessions to get most of the grafts out.